Easy-Cut Version 2.1 adds Titles

Easy-Cut has a new video editing tool that will make it easy to insert titles, notes and “leaders” into cutups and highlight videos.  

The new Titles feature is included in Version 2.1 that started shipping today in an update to Easy-Cut.  This cool, powerful and easy-to-use feature  was not complete at the time of the general release of Easy-Cut 2.0 approximately a month ago.  A free update is available to all existing Easy-Cut users.

We call the new feature “Titles”, and it does what it sounds like it would do – enables an Easy-Cut user to create titles and “leaders” that can be inserted into Easy-Cut projects to introduce sequences of video clips.   

Titles are created “on the fly” as high quality digtal video files, and can be used repeatedly by simply adding them to an Easy-Cut project – just like any other video clip.  The background color, text color, duration (in seconds) of the title display and the size of the title can be set according to user requirements.

Football coaches might use Easy-Cut to quickly create titles such as Offense, Defense, Punt, Punt Return and so on and insert them into videos to introduce the type of plays that will follow in the video.

Basteball coaches might use Easy-Cut to quickly create titles such as Offense, Defense, Transition, Zone, Trap, Press and so on, also inserting them into videos to introduce the type of plays that will follow in the video.

With the new Title capability, Easy-Cut users will be able to improve the educational and informational quality of video cutups and highlights and no longer will need to produce title clips in another program.

Easy-Scout XP update

We recently released a new version of Easy-Scout XP that delivers increased compatibility with Windows Vista.   In addition, the new version includes minor revisions to a number reports.

The new install program is now being distributed for trial downloads and is also available at the CompuSports Technical Support site for existing customers.  In addition, we have released Easy-Scout XP Service Pack 1, our first ever cumulative update for Easy-Scout XP that applies all changes made since Easy-Scout XP was first released in 2003.

Windows Vista made a number of changes in the way software must be installed and configured and we’ve successfully tested Easy-Scout XP on Windows Vista Home Premium, Vista Ultimate and Vista Business.  Detailed instructions and sample screen shots of the Vista installation and configuration steps are included with the new install program.

New Divx Output option for Easy-Cut ideal for creating DVD’s

One of the not-so-obvious features that we added to Easy-Cut in the Version 2 release is support for DIVX as an output type.  This is a great option for creating video cutups that will be burned to a DVD using programs like Roxio’s Easy Media Creator.

 Easy-Cut has always worked well with DIVX as source files, particularly when the files were captured with our favorite Plextor USB Digital Video Converter  (PX-M402U) or converted from DVD using Intervideo’s slick DVDCopy4 or DVDCopy5 Platinum Edition sofware. 

 Now Version 2 of Easy-Cut can create output in DIVX if the system includes a compatible codec. DIVX Codecs ship with quite a few products there days, but the easiest way to get it is to download it from www.divx.com. There is no cost for the standard DIVX codec, and the Professional Version which has some additional features and functions that might be of interest to advanced users is only $20.

Easy-Recruiter gets improved Excel Import and Export

Many users of our Easy-Recruiter software make extensive use of its ability to work with Microsoft Office – specifically Excel, Word and Outlook.

Easy-Recruiter 2.53, a maintenance update just released, improves on its ability to work with Excel worksheets and is now available free of charge to Easy-Recruiter 2.5 users. The update is posted on our Technical Support web site at www.compusportsnetwork.com .

College coaches and recruiters looking to automate their Athletic Recruiting process and make it more efficient often have a short “run ramp” from paper, Excel or Access to Easy-Recruiter.  When budgets are tight, utilizing Excel in conjunction with Easy-Recruiter, especially for off-site coaches and recruiters,  costs less than buying a license for each coach.

Easy-Recruiter’s Import capabilities shine at the start of a new recruiting season, when lists of prospective athletes, their schools and coaches are purchased from one of the many recruiting services.  We have experience importing lists from data provided by Collegiate Sports Data, Forbes and LRS to name just a few and we also include data migration and import assistance free of charge for a year with the Single user and Workgroup versions.  CSD has delivered data to one of our customers in a format that requires little modification before importing it into Easy-Recruiter.

We’re constantly trying to reduce the time it takes to get information into our programs.  Its really amazing to some of our customers when they realize they can start the recruiting season with a full list of athletes, schools and coaches in a program like Easy-Recruiter without any manual data entry.

A trial version of Easy-Recruiter is available by download, and 1 on 1 demonstrations are available on request.